When people talk about information design, the first name to come up is often Edwin Tufte’s. And that’s for good reason—he’s got a lot of smart things to say on the topic. If you want to learn more about Tufte and his ideas, you can check out his website, go to a conference where he’s presenting (I attended one recently), and read his books to find out more. (A little side-note here: while we do admire Tufte and his work and have learned a lot from him, we think his criticism of PowerPoint is off target or at least overly stated—check out this article by Tom Kuhlmann of the Articulate blog if you’re interested in that.)

But Malamed’s book is especially interesting because, unlike Tufte, she wrote it specifically for people creating visuals for instructional/training/learning purposes, and that’s its real strength. Well, that plus her wealth of knowledge, the great images in the book that illustrate her points, and her clear, enjoyable writing style.

Here’s a quick rundown of the chapters and sections within her book. Of course, we recommend you pick up a copy and read it for yourself.

GETTING GRAPHICS

A nice explanation of how humans process visual information. This section is really helpful not only for creating effective learning visuals, but for understanding how people learn, remember, and later apply information in general.

ORGANIZATION FOR PERCEPTION

In this chapter, she explains the value of:

Features that pop out as a result of color, depth, or similar tricks of the trade.

Texture segregation used to draw attention to one feature or another.

Grouping to organize information and draw attention to specific groups.

Implied motion, which covers the use of implied motion of objects within static images.

Inherent structure, which discusses the power of representing information within a symbolic or otherwise explanatory visual structure (such as discussing a genetics in a visual shaped like a double helix).

CHARGE IT UP

Her final chapter presents these techniques for adding more to images:

Emotional salience, which addresses the strong ability of emotional content to attract attention and the use of visual elements, such as color, to influence the viewer’s emotions.

Narratives, which presents the importance of using visuals to tell stories (such as in procedures, sequences, chronologies, and such).

Visual metaphors, which shows the effectiveness of using visual metaphors to further the explanatory power of a graphic (for example, an example graphic about the health hazards of unwashed vegetables in which a mushroom looks like a nuclear mushroom cloud).

Novelty and humor, in which unexpected material and funny material is used to draw attention.

If you’d like to get a little more savvy about the way you use visuals in your training/learning materials, this book is a really great place to start. It’s a great resource for graphic designers, of course, but also for IDs and trainers who are part of the training-creation process.